131 Macdonald Road, 7:32 p.m., January 8th, 1994
She'd avoided looking for her. But sometimes, when there were only minutes until the first ray of light would hit the city, she would find herself searching for information on Ava. In a few months, four to be exact, she would be two years old.
She'd missed the first birthday, on purpose, though she'd read it in the newspaper, Bethany and Mason Stevenson seemed to be the type to celebrate the smallest thing in a big way.
Only a few minutes ago, Pam had bought something, a belated, or possibly early however you think of it, present. She had the storekeeper wrap it and tie a pink ribbon onto it and now she found herself holding the present as she shifted around the house looking for the nursery.
Of course, just like the first time Pam had met darling little Ava, she met her again crying. The parents were too busy fucking in the room on the other side of the house to notice, most likely they had turned the baby monitor off that sat next to the white painted cradle.
She opened the window of the single storey house and slipped into the room as easy as she would have if she had walked through the doorway. The moment that she re-closed the brown window, Ava rolled over, stopped crying, and looked at her with wide sapphire eyes.
She was surprised that Ava remembered her, even though she knew she was not someone easy to forget, she had only known this tiny child briefly in it's life.
Pam walked over to the baby monitor, no, it hadn't been turned off- it was just that the batteries were flat. She rolled her eyes and placed the monitor back down on the small end table before walking to crib. Her shadow fell over Ava just as like what had happened before, only this time Ava giggled and reached out towards her.
Pam picked her up and handed her the gift. Instinctively the baby pulled at the pink ribbon and began playing with it as though that was the gift and not the soft teddy bear beneath the wrapping paper.
Pam slid a nail through the paper and pulled out the teddy bear, discarding the paper onto the ground. Ava grabbed at the teddy, pulled it to her chest before relaxing upon Pam's chest. Her face rubbed against the pastel blue cashmere as she closed her eyes and was lulled into sleep.
She heard movement from across the house and quickly she had placed Ava back into her crib before disappearing outside the house. Ava didn't cry this time; she was too heavy in sleep to notice. But Pam laid near the window, against the brick wall listening as the father commented on how he'd never seen the toy.
He found himself walking to the window and looking outwards onto the backyard. Upon opening the window, Pam left, leaving naught but a gust of hair due to her quick movement.
Later she walked past a couple with a baby in the shops as she looked for someone to feed upon. The baby cried, and whinged and stunk of a dirty diaper. She still hated babies, still hated children, but still felt drawn to the one she saved who had cried only twice in her presence.
And both, even she found were legitimate reasons to cry, though she wouldn't and hadn't cried in any situation that was similar.
Ava131 Macdonald Road, 9:17p.m., May 18th, 1994
'Two,' the word had been circling her today, from all the people who had come to visit her, all bearing gifts and trinkets. They gave her some clothes that she didn't like, some toys that felt itchy against her skin, and objects that were for her parents like a seat that they placed in the car, all the while repeating the word 'two'. She couldn't say it, but she knew that it was important, at least to them.
Her Parents were asleep after making loud noises like giggling and laughing, and making squeaky noises that were similar to what she could make if she rolled over in the crib.
A different noise was made, and she rolled in her bed, her face squashing the soft teddy, so that she could face the window. The lace curtains moved and as though she appeared out of thin air, the blonde vampire had returned. Her pinks nails wrapped around the side of the crib as her blue eyes observed her. She twisted her head to one side and picked up the baby monitor up and switched it off.
She then proceeded to pick up Ava frown at the clothes. They had been a gift from an old woman who looked like her mother, and they were itchy and hot.
"I don't know who got this for you, but it is a horrible colour and obvious cheaply made," she pulled at the back of the collar to read at the tag that had begun to cause an itch, "just as I thought," she whispered before unbuttoning the outfit and stripping it off her skin.
Instantly, Ava felt relief, and visibly her mood shone through on her face.
Pam rummaged through the drawers before finally pulling out something she deemed suitable. After little struggle, she placed the soft, light material onto the little girl before pulling out a present from the handbag she had placed under the window.
Once again, she pulled at the pink ribbon, only this time, after the pink nails sliced through the thin packaging, inside was a small, rectangular velvet box. "When I was still human, I had a lot of jewellery from my childhood, some I was able to take with me, but there was one that I had lost." She opened the box, and inside laid a small bracelet with her name engraved in it. "I miss mine, it was simple, pretty, and stated who I was." She slipped the bracelet onto the wrist.
Ava stared at the bracelet before grabbing the teddy bear she had received only months earlier. She knew it was time for the woman to leave, but all the same, she didn't want her to go.
The blonde switched on the baby monitor again and slipped back out the window, leaving the little girl crying with her arm around the teddy as large as her.
Her parents sleepily came into the room to see why she was making such a fuss, but they didn't notice the bracelet until later. In their minds they pretended that it had been a gift from one of their friends or family, but somewhere, deep in their minds, they knew that they had not seen that gift and that they didn't know the person who gave it to her.
Pam131 Macdonald Road, 6:43p.m., December 14th, 1994
Since the last time she had visited, Bethany's stomach had grown. She didn't seem to be putting on weight anywhere else – aside from her breasts – which led Pam to believe she was pregnant. They had put Ava back in her room to play with her toys within a pen whilst they prepared dinner.
She crept the window again. One day she expected to find that they had locked the window, but so far they seemed to believe closing it was just enough – or perhaps the window's lock was broken and they were unaware. Either way she was still able to slide into the room and close the door quietly.
The house was old; they wouldn't expect anything of it.
Ava stopped playing with her toys as soon as Pam had slid into the room, and now as the woman leaned against her wall, she did something that would have surprised her parents, she climbed on top of her playpen before falling off, or perhaps an attempt at climbing off, and landed on the floor with a soft thud. She waited, before she attempted at standing and walking over, though only making a few steps before she decided to crawl the rest of the way.
She sat at her feet and touched the cool, burgundy heels; it was a soft touch as she admired the reflection within them before she looked up at the vampire. The woman rolled her eyes and picked up the child.
The bracelet made a sound of movement and Pam raised her eyebrow, she hadn't expected her to still be wearing it, she had thought that her parents would remove it and place it in the wooden jewellery box that sat on the shelf out of reach from the child. Instead she found her still wearing it.
There was no need for either of them to speak. Instead Pam observed her in her arms for a few minutes, with the child equally returning the stare, before she placed her back in the playpen.
As she went to leave, and the child began to cry again, she whispered, "I only come because I know there's something unusual about you, you smell different, you act different." And then she left again as the parents opened the door – this time though, she decided to leave the window open to see what they'd say.
They didn't say anything; instead they just shut it as though one of them had accidentally left it open.
But before she left the grounds of the house she heard Bethany say to Mason, "God this child cries more then any other I've known."
'How curious,' she thought before returning home.